On Saturday, on May 29th, the Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers kicked off the 2010 Stanley Cup Finals. Chicago was hoping to shutdown Philadelphia’s offense and had the advantage of playing at home. While Chicago managed to win the game 6-5, it was far from the clean, dominant victory they were hoping.

In Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals in history, the 11 goals that the teams combined for was the highest number of goals. Antti Niemi picked up the win for Chicago by managing 27 saves, while none of the goalies that played in the game was impressive. The starting goalie for Philadelphia, Michael Leighton, was pulled and Brian Boucher was put in as the backup. In the loss, he picked up 11 saves.

As 5 different players scored a goal, Philadelphia did manage to show off their impressive depth. Including Troy Brouwer who scored twice, five different players scored for Chicago as well. The last goal of the game came from an unexpected source, as Tomas Kopecky, who had not played in the last five games, managed to score a very tough goal on Brian Boucher. Andrew Ladd suffered an injury and because of which Kopecky was playing.

In the Stanley Cup Finals is to expect the unexpected, the one thing that always holds true. Game 1 of 2010 Finals continued to prove that. It delivered plenty of excitement, while the game may have lacked the pure technical skills expected from the final two teams.